Chapter 2 - The Secret in the Briefcase
The world seemed to tilt entirely off its axis as I stared at the woman standing in my doorway.
Elena.
That was the name of Arthur’s deceased first wife, the woman who had supposedly died giving birth to me.
My hands began to shake uncontrollably as I ushered her inside the house, away from the prying eyes of the party guests.
I led her into my home office and locked the door behind us, blocking out the cheerful sounds of the barbecue.
She sat down on the edge of the leather sofa, placing her briefcase carefully on the glass coffee table.
"I know how insane this sounds," she began, refusing to make direct eye contact with me.
"But I have spent the last six months tracking down Margaret's hidden storage units after seeing her trial on the national news."
She opened the briefcase, her hands trembling as she pulled out a stack of yellowed hospital records.
"Margaret didn't just steal one baby from the maternity ward that night," Elena explained, sliding the papers toward me.
"She stole twins."
I felt all the blood drain from my face as I looked down at the birth certificates.
There were two footprints, two names, and a massive cover-up orchestrated by the very nurse who had ruined my life.
"She sold me to a wealthy family in Europe who wanted a child but couldn't adopt legally," she continued, tears forming in her identical green eyes.
"She kept you because she needed leverage to eventually trap Arthur, but she knew twins would be too difficult to hide."
I picked up the papers, my vision blurring as I read the forged signatures and altered medical records.
My entire life, I had felt a strange, unexplainable emptiness, as if a piece of my soul was missing.
Now, looking at the biological sister I never knew I had, everything finally made a twisted kind of sense.
"Why are you coming to me now?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
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"Because," she replied, her expression suddenly turning incredibly dark and serious.
"The family Margaret sold me to is a powerful criminal syndicate, and they know I've found you."
